cat-shipping

Bringing your cat or small dog with you in the cabin of a flight is never easy, but it is generally permitted by most airlines.  But what if you have two cats, and there’s only one of you traveling, or three cats with two people?  Will the airline let you do it?  What will it cost?  And how the hell are you supposed to get through TSA?  Here are some answers.

First of all, if you’re comfortable checking your pet into the cargo hold, there is no significant difference when traveling with more pets than people.  Before you settle on this option, however, you may want to check out the regularly-published airline animal incident reports (for a good summary, check out this thirdamendment.com post).

Airline Policies

Most airlines will only let you travel with more pets than people in very special situations.  For example, if you have 2 small kittens from the same litter between certain ages, some airlines will allow you put them both in the same carrier when flying.  I would be very surprised if they could actually identify whether 2 kittens are from the same litter, but the general thought is to prevent any mid-flight cat fights.  If you have full-grown cats or dogs, however, this exception generally doesn’t apply.  In those cases, there’s only one other option: buying an extra seat.

Very few (but some!) airlines allow additional pets to be brought into the cabin if you buy additional seats.  The pets don’t occupy the seats themselves, of course, but this way you have more under-seat spaces for them.  At the time of this writing, the only US domestic airline that allowed this was Virgin America.  International airlines are similarly restricted, although Austrian Airlines does allow for additional seat purchases for additional pets.  It’s not the cheapest way to transport your pets (since you still have to pay the additional pet fees on top of the extra seat), but it’s a price we were willing to pay for our pets’ safety & relative comfort.

Logistics

If you thought the cost of an extra ticket was painful, wait until you get to the airport.  This is by no means an attempt at discouraging anyone from bringing multiple pets per person, but I would definitely encourage some pre-planning.

The first obstacle is sometimes the check-in agents, who are oftentimes somewhat misinformed about their own airline’s policies.  Here are some general tips on how to deal with these situations. [link]

The next (and probably biggest) hurdle is the TSA.  If you have two pets and only one person (or any combination where the ratio of pets to people is greater than one), you’ll have to do some maneuvering to get through security.  The best thing to do when you first arrive at security is to get one of the TSA agent’s attention and let them know your situation.  This will let them feel like they’re in control (which they love oh so much), and in turn give you a better chance at a smooth process.  Let them tell you what they’d like you to do, and as long as it’s reasonable and safe for your pets, do it that way.  In our experiences, the TSA have always asked for us to remove one pet at a time from the carrier, send the carrier through the x-ray machine, walk the pet through the metal detector, return them to their carrier, and then walk back through to get the next pet.  Depending on whether you have anyone with you, this could mean leaving a pet on one side while you’re securing another on the other side – unfortunate, but necessary.  If you’re nice to the TSA, they might even give you a hand getting everything through the machines.

If the TSA process sounds too overwhelming, or becomes too much to manage at the time, you can always ask for a private screening.  This will get you out of the regular current of manic passengers, which is welcome for some pet owners.  Regardless of which approach you take, just make sure and keep a good hold on your pets’ harnesses when they’re out of the carrier – pets do escape in terminals, and it’s not an enviable situation in the slightest.

From that point on, it’s relatively smooth sailing…as much as traveling with pets ever can be.

Comments are closed.